Camera Obscura – If Looks Could Kill

Surely anyone with a sense of what perfect pop should sound like would be floored by the purest melodies that Camera Obscura produce? That and the fact that a Camera Obscura record so often sounds like it could have been made back in the time when buying a piece of vinyl was almost as important as picking up the weekly groceries. Led by the dreamy tonsilled chanteuse Tracyanne Campbell Camera Obscura are a multi-membered pop combo from Glasgow. Their career has been closely aligned with their neighbours Belle & Sebastian with Stuart Murdoch going so far as to producing their earlier records. Of late (to these ears at least) Camera Obscura have even surpassed their more illustrious contemporaries with their spellbinding 3rd album ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’. Boasting their best ever song ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken’ it is littered with at least another half dozen gems including this one ‘If Looks Could Kill’. This is how Motown should sound in the noughties and if you are of a mood it will reduce you to a blubbering crybaby. Absolutely magical. KD